Socioeconomic factors most important in vaccine hesitancy of patients with IBD
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Factors such as race, political affiliation and income played a greater role than disease-related attributes in vaccine hesitancy of patients with inflammatory bowel disease, according to a presentation at the ACG Annual Scientific Meeting.
“Successful recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic relies on widespread vaccine acceptance. While uptake has improved over recent months, hesitancy and skepticism persist, including in populations who could most benefit from vaccination, such as the elderly, chronically ill or those on immunosuppressants,” Zoya Grigoryan, MD, internal medicine resident at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, and colleagues wrote in their abstract. “This survey study aims to characterize attributes that correlate and possibly determine vaccine intent or hesitancy among our IBD population.”
Grigoryan and colleagues analyzed the responses of 278 patients from an academic IBD clinic who completed an online survey evaluating disease history, medications, changes to medications and disease management during the pandemic, and social, economic and household characteristics. Positive vaccine intent among patients was defined as having received or planning to receive a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, whereas vaccine hesitancy was defined as having not received and not planning to receive any portion of the vaccine.
Of 278 survey respondents, 84.2% had positive vaccine intent and 15.8% were vaccine-hesitant, according to the data.
“Disease-related attributes, comorbidities or the use of immunosuppressants were not found to significantly associate with either vaccine intent or hesitancy. Upon initial analysis, discontinuation of biologics during the pandemic associated with negative vaccine intent, but the relationship disappeared when controlling for race,” Grigoryan said during a virtual poster presentation.
When controlling for sex, age, race, education and income, variables associated with positive vaccine intent included having a bachelor’s degree or higher (OR = 2.5; P = .026), annual income greater than $150,000 (OR = 3.295; P = .015), aged 90 years or older (OR = 2.554; P = .014), Democratic political party affiliation (OR = 7.193; P < .001), having received the flu shot the previous year (OR = 3.702; P = .002) and having children stay home during the entire initial phase of the pandemic (OR = 5.55; P < .001. ). Additionally, patients who reported receiving COVID-19 information from the news media (OR = 3.793; P = .02) or CDC (OR = 5.749; P < .001) were more likely to receive the vaccine.
In contrast, researchers identified Republican party affiliation (OR = 0.259; P = .011), African American race (OR = 0.175; P = .005), COVID-19-related financial hardship (OR = .48; P = .047), having children attend in-person school or daycare during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic (OR = 0.18; P < .001), in-person employment (OR = 0.403; P = .025) and receiving information about COVID-19 from religious leaders (OR = 0.069; P = .025) as some variables that were associated with vaccine hesitancy, Grigoryan noted.
“Currently, the U.S. has not reached vaccination rates adequate to achieve herd immunity. Vaccine hesitancy and skepticism persist despite strong clinical data and safety profiles. Public health and health promotion campaigns must engage the community in ways that take into account these specific barriers to vaccine acceptance if we are to increase vaccination rates in this unique and polarized climate,” Grigoryan said.
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Grigoryan Z. Socioeconomic factors, not disease severity or treatment regimen, most important in identifying COVID-19 vaccine hesitant IBD patients. Presented at: ACG Annual Scientific Meeting; Oct. 22-27, 2021; Las Vegas (hybrid meeting).
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